I was reminded on Thursday that I had to Q Friday morning at the Swarm and I was not looking forward to it. Normally I would take any and every Q but this week with lack of sleep, missing workouts and getting crushed at Clyent Dinner (no oxygen in the air) I wasn’t about it. Plus our Waxhaw Express team has a 10k race Saturday morning. Ugh
Let’s see how it went down!!
At 5:44 Gerber says “1 min”. He didn’t need to yell, there was only 4 of us.
At 5:45 we start a slow mosey (7:45p) down the path towards the Rudy’s house of horrors, hang a left towards the stadium/traffic circle.
At 5:48.51 MAN DOWN!! This wasn’t a laughing matter or is it now.
Gerber was running along fine with the group and said he felt a small pain in his back but pushed through it. Dasher and I were chatting it up up front and I told him we were doing an opening mile…slow. We have a race tomorrow. “Deadwood, you know when we do an opening mosey mile we go the opposite direction to avoid the hill, that we were currently approaching. I’ve been know to cave to complaining pax but he did have a point, we needed to take it a little easy, we have a race.
AUDIBLE!!
We circled up, well it was more like a square, at the corner of the lot. Damascus this next one was for you but you won’t post. “wink”
“First exercise….Side Straddle Hop….IC.Exercise” is what I should have called, why fix it when it isn’t broke?
What I actually said was calf stretch (told you Damascus) so we all started stretching. I think this was around that point during the runners lunge when Gerber knew he was hurt.
We pause for a minute and see if he’s ok, he tries to push through, but has already slowed to a “insert pax” level. This wasn’t looking good. I’ve injured my back before and it hurts. When the pain hits it’s sharp as a knife and direct.
We all mosey over to the other corner to start the workout. I’m asking Dasher on the way over if we should go grab a car? I let every know what we were about to do and Gerber is in obvious pain. BUT STILL WONT STOP!
We take off and we get to the bottom of the first of the four corners and as we are heading back Gerber tells us he is done. We asked if he needed anything, he didn’t. We moved forward.
We did the normal stuff you do at swarm, post and you will see.
After the workout, myself and a few pax checked on Gerber… he was down. I have tens unit (google it) and I dropped it by his house.
When arrived I was greeted with a slow moving Gerber. I think he hated being hurt, but knowing he probably wouldn’t be able to run in our last Waxhaw Express race hurt way more. If you know his competitive edge you would agree.
This afternoon Dasher checked in on the team and Gerber isn’t ready to race tomorrow, we already knew this but had to hear from the former triathlete himself.
Under Dashers lead, we agreed, that if Gerber can’t run then none of us will run. Noble call Dasher, well done. Secretly I was DREADING the 10k.
Gerber, we all wish you a speedy recovery man.
Happy Friday everyone, the rain is gone, and temp is exactly right to loosen up quickly.
DiCCS were given (Disclaimer, Cell phone, CPR, Safety) – Centerfold late again
Warm Up:
The Thang:
TABATA
Round after Round of Bicep and Triceps
Couple rounds of some awful ab work – I hate Windshield Wipers
Many rounds of Chest Work
More rounds of Bicep and Triceps work
MOLESKIN:
Not a lot of detail on The Thang. I was playing with my Weinke all morning, but I think everyone enjoyed the show. Sometimes you just must play to the crowd. Most of us are still physically and mentally exhausted from Monday, so there was 0.0 chance of us doing anything lower body.
I think everyone got exactly what they deserved today. My arms were shaking while trying to maintain perfect form. (Recalc approved) Today was a sad day when the inevitable happened, we lost Easy Button. We did gain a Dumb Ass Kiss though, so we will celebrate the little wins. The child like banter was on full display again today. Please feel free to come join in one of these days.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
All I could think about last night as I was heading to bed was the slogan from Rip Roarin’ Rapids. If you grew up in the Charlotte area, you’re likely familiar with it. There’s a sign just as you walk in that reads: “You will get wet, you may get soaked.” With that in mind, I built the weinke for a little dry and a little wet. Luckily for the 7 PAX who showed up, they didn’t have to worry about either as the rain had stopped by the time we rolled up @ 5:30am. But even without the rain, with the humidity pushing 90%+, it was like working out inside a dog’s mouth.
Here’s what went down.
The Thang
Mosey across 51 and over to the Charlotte Catholic deck. CoP @ bottom entrance.
Warm-Up Exercises in cadence:
WAVE 1: Catch me if you can (Partner Up)
Back down Stairwell #1 and across to the stadium
WAVE 2: Leg Lifts and Bearkin Lunge Crawls
Mosey over to Stairwell #2
WAVE 3: Deck Routine (Partner Back Up)
Mosey over to rock pile on McMahon rd., pick your weight
WAVE 4: Rock Work
Mosey back to Launch Point
Mary until time is called
Called time and COT.
YHC with the prayer.
Moleskin
Announcements
The Thang
DiCCS given, let’s mosey …
Warmed up with an opening mile on route to the famous “Frank and Beans” route only found in Millbridge. Loosened up with some “Bratwurst” style exercises (minus the skip-kick thing). For Waxhaw Express, this is Week 3 of an 8 week plan to prepare us for a 5k/10k race on July 4th weekend. Today’s workout was simple to say, not so simple to execute. Basically, we ran 10min on/2 min off. The 10 min was at T pace (T = Threshold, your 1 hr long race pace, usually about 1 min longer per mile than your 1 mile race pace). While your processing that, consider after our 10 min T-Pace, we got 2 min off/jog. 2 minutes never went by so quick … Rinse and repeat for 3 sets!
Moleskin
Good job by all PAX, including a couple of cyclists. It was good having Bratwurst there to oversee his 8 week plan in action. We had all levels of runners working hard in the hills of Millbridge. Gerber was at the pointy end with Tooltime on his hip. I watched in admiration. Scuba Steve (my Navy Seal neighbor) has been hopping on the Waxhaw Express lately, good to get him on dry ground. Endo and Bratwurst joined us too, despite Bratwurst recent MTB accident. He decided MTB is hazardous to his health (and I concur), we also contemplated a name swap between him and Endo??? Glidah was missing Dasher, but held his own quite well, he was right there for all three rounds, possibly regretting every minute of it:) And , we had two Train patrols on their MTB’s, Fuse and Posse! Last but not least, there was a lot of hype and buzz among the PAX in anticipation of TUCK’s EPIC return to Pursuit from quarantine. PAX searched the hills of Millbridge High & Low for TUCK, only to later discover someone Fart Slacked this morning. We miss you Tuck!
Announcements
100For100 – Half way there! Give what you can. Yours truly took us out.
This week I was texting with Showgirl and he mentioned he enjoyed the 5:30 boot camps. Well yesterday we made a plan to meet at Impromptu for a 5:30 workout. It is with my surprise after a few months I still remembered how to set the alarm and actually woke up on time and made it shortly before 5:30.
Well as 5:30 rolls around it was time to do this.
Warmup Mosey to the front of the middle school for:
The Thang:
It was great to get out with Showgirl again for some good livin.
I took us out.
The End.
It was really ass swamp producing HOT!
Warm up down the sidewalk with a Mosey and stopping for SSH, Al Gore/Moroccan Night Clubs, Mosey some more stop for Merkins, calf stretch, Wide Arm Merkins, Duggans, 6 inches, Warm Up Complete.
Mosey up to the traffic circle by the stadium and back to the rock pile. Grab a rock:
10-8-6-4-2
Burpee then broad jump over rock x10, Al Gore/rock press x10, Lunges with rock over head x10
Same exercises all the way down to 2.
Mosey to traffic circle. Up top complete 25 step ups and bottom circle 10 Merkin Shredders. Each group completes top and bottom.
Mosey to stadium parking lot. Up 2 lights for 10 Speed Skaters and back 1 for 10 Bobby Hurleys.
Mosey to school and find a wall for:
9-7-5-3-1 Mike Tysons, Big Boy Sit Ups and Donkey Kicks
Mosey back to COT and find some shade!
Moleskin
It was hotter than two rats scrompin in a wool sock!
My M and I spoke about George Floyd last night, she couldn’t finish watching the clip, I teared up. Its wrong, we need to say it out loud and call it what it is. We need to be real about the white privilege we have, not that we can stop it but we can use it to help others given the opportunity. That is all it should be used for. We are strong men, we claim to be leaders, good leaders stand against evil. Do what ever you can to stand against it. I am not exactly sure what that means but when the time comes and you have an opportunity to stand for what is right or voice you opinion against what is wrong, DO IT!
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”― Edmund Burke (in a letter addressed to Thomas Mercer).
4 PAX showed at the re-opening of The Arsenal. It’s been a pretty wet and rainy week, so YHC planned a Wienke that would avoid the grass and mud and what I’m sure was a swamp of a practice field. The disclaimer was delivered, this time I remembered the new bits too and we were off at 0530 on the dot.
WARMUP
From launch, take a lap around ILES stopping in the bus parking lot for a warmup.
THE THING
COT / ANNOUNCEMENTS
MOLESKIN
So I looked at my calendar this week just in time to see I was the pilot for Chiseled. Awesome! Went to work on the ‘ol weinke and nothing… You’ve been there right? Weinke block? I guess there are many blocks but stay with me here… I was struggling to come up with some great material to please the masses for a Wednesday morning beat down and it just wasn’t coming together. Maybe it was still trying to work around what’s left of our quarantine guidelines because I do genuinely enjoy a smaller group. Anyway, I reached out to my fellow Chiseled board members late night and received nothing but humorous .gifs in return making fun of my lack of preparation. So here’s where we ended up —> Grab the old cardboard signs from your VQ and use those with coupons and / or rocks at different locations on site. Rinse and repeat with a run in between and voila!
THE THANG
Cardboard placed at each spot on site and waiting for launch. In my head I’m leading 10 – 15 and here we are at 20 bodies. Not going to work with my weinke so made the executive decision with Fuse box to take half the group. I’m not even sure what he did but his group clocked in more mileage than mine so we’ll assume it was good. Mosey started with our coupons heading towards the Five Stones entrance but dropped them off half way to do some Toy Soldiers ( thanks Tool Time for the reminder and you already know the names of the exercises better than most ). Moseyed to pick back up coupons and on to far back parking lot to pick a spot and complete warm up: SSH x 10 IC Imp Wlk x 10 IC Merkins x 15 Super long awkward calf stretch x ea leg – include Damascus one liners and signature groaning noises First cardboard round of pain: All with coupon Coupon swing x 20 Man makers x 10 LBCs x 20 Thrusters x 10 In between each exercise hold coupon over head and execute a walking lunge to other side of lot Hot lap around Mt. Chiseled after completing last exercise Rinse and repeat for 3 rounds – We changed the lunge in between each exercise to bear crawls and maybe something else but I can’t remember Moseyed with coupon to location 2 – Mt. Chiseled parking lot Squats w coupon x 20 Traveling merkin on coupon x 20 Jumping lunge no coupon x 20 M. Tysons no coupon x 20 Maybe this is where we did the bear crawls but we also ran backward across the lot and crab walked back in between each exercise. It was all very sucky… Bear crawl up steep side of Mt. Chiseled and mosey down the other side then bear crawl back up and mosey down after last exercise. Rinse and repeat for 3 rounds. Had about 90 seconds to mosey back to COT with coupons in hand.
MOLESKIN
I hate not being prepared but we got ‘er done and it seemed like most everyone was sucking wind so I’m going with a WIN on this one. Sometimes thinking on the fly and just going with it is better than being over prepared. We were able to make quick decisions based on the size of the group with this AO and it worked. Glad to see so many familiar faces and pax I haven’t been able to interact with in real life for so long. Catfish was so excited I was on Q this morning he called me at 5:25 wondering where everyone was at so I reminder him of our current “summer” schedule. Tool Time is still a “new guy” but I see him post everywhere, keeps up with Wolverine and Gerber during Waxhaw Express runs and leads the pack carrying a coupon while reminding me of the next exercise during my own Q… Oh, and he’s already on the Chiseled calendar for his VQ. Glad to have you on board and excited to see what you’ll do next! Shout out to all the other “newer” pax that are becoming regulars. I haven’t had a chance to speak with several yet but look forward to it now that we’re up and running again. As usual the morning was mostly a blur but I remember there wasn’t a whole lot of chatter going on and a lot of hard work. Our groups mileage was overall pretty low (under 2mi) but we made up for it wrestling those coupons the entire time. I had the privilege to take us out and Gerber screwed up the family photo but it’s the thought that counts.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Happy F3 1yr anniversary to Speed bump! Being Gerber’s 2.0 has it’s advantages. I wish he would have put an odometer on him to see how far the kid has run / biked the past year. I guess we can check Gerber’s Strava account because I’m sure it’s pretty close… We’re about half way on our 100 pax challenge to get to $10k and support our local organizations. Looking forward to see how this continues to develope and grow. Don’t forget to reach out to employers to see if they’ll match a donation etc. Q source this Friday 7am at Cuthbertson Middle – bring a chair and coffee cup Remember, there’s a reason when you think about someone suddenly or that one thing is on your heart. Act on it, reach out, do something.